Lenovo today announced its latest flagship smartphone, the Vibe S1 in India at Rs 15,999. It has a 5 inch touchscreen that comes with full high definition Resolution (1920×1080 pixels) and it has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection as well.
The Android Lollipop based Android Vibe S1 comes with the 64 bit Mediatek MT6752 octa core processor that runs the phone with the help of 3 GB RAM and Mali T760 graphics processor. It has huge 32 GB of Internal Memory and a micro SD card slot that can accommodate a micro SD card of up to 128 GB.
The Vibe S1 has two nano SIM card slots and it is 4G compatible as well. Besides, it has dual Band WiFi (a/b/g/n), WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, FM radio, micro USB 2.0 port and GPS with AGPS.
Here is our first impression of the Vibe S1.
Design
The Lenovo Vibe S1 is undoubtedly a gorgeous smartphone. With a glass back panel, it looks stunning. Due to the glass body, it is a bit slippery but unless you have really very sweaty hands, you won’t find it difficult to hold. Anyway, Lenovo is offering a transparent plastic back cover which you can use to enhance grip and protect the back panel.
The phone has a metal rim which has a smooth finishing and is a bit curvy, allowing a comfortable grip. It looks stunning in blue colour.
The Lenovo Vibe S1 is also quite thin and lightweight, measuring just 143.3 x 70.8 x 7.8 mm and has a weight of just 132 grams.
Since it has a unibody, its battery is non-removable. The back panel too cannot be removed. A tray is located in the left hand side that holds the micro SD and SIM slots. Note that it has got a hybrid SIM tray which means in the second slot, you can either use a SIM card (nano SIM) or a micro SD card. The first slot too is meant for a nano SIM card.
The volume and power button are located on the right hand side. A 3.5 mm jack and a microphone is located at the top while the micro USB port is at the bottom along with two speaker grills. In the rear panel the 13 Megapixel camera lies at the top, below which lies the dual tone LED flash light. The brand name – Vibe – is laser printed in the back panel which has a clean look.
The review unit of Lenovo Vibe S1 though had a major issue vis-a-vis construction. Something inside the phone got lose perhaps during transportation or during our use and upon shaking the phone, we heard a sound from inside. Since it has a unibody, we had no way to know what it was but it was certainly a big issue as who knows what else will get loose in the longer run but we hope it was just an aberration and the issue is limited to few units including this review unit.
All in all, the Lenovo Vibe S1 is quite compact and is an attractive device though you may have to use the back cover to avoid sweat and dust ruining the look of the phone and ofcourse to have a better grip.
Display
The Lenovo Vibe S1 has got a 5 inch display that has the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which seems quite effective in protecting the display from scratches but ofcourse we will use it for a longer duration to see if it can withstand the rigorous daily usages. The display is though a smudge magnet for sure.
The display’s brightness levels are definitely not high enough for bright summer outdoors. I was though pretty satisfied with its touch response and ofcourse it offers full high definition resolution (1920×1080 pixels) and has a good colour reproduction.
Connectivity
The Lenovo Vibe S1 has a hybrid tray which means its second SIM slot can either hold the SIM card or a micro SD card. This means you can either opt to expand storage or use your second SIM. Such arrangement is becoming common these days which is certainly not in the interest of the users. Lenovo should have instead opted for dedicated SIM slots along with a dedicated micro SD card slot as Motorola had done in its Moto X Style.
Also the Vibe S1 offers Bluetooth 4.0 version and not the latest Bluetooth 4.1 LE. It has though a micro USB port, GPS with AGPS, 3.5 mm jack and the dual band WiFi (a/b/g/n) along with WiFi Hotspot feature.
Camera
This is undoubtedly the highlight of the Vibe S1. The selfie lovers would rejoice the fact that it comes with two front cameras – an 8 megapixel primary front camera and a secondary 2 megapixel camera. When you opt for the dual front camera mode, the phone offers few editing options like blurring effects and cut out. We will explore the dual camera offerings in detail later during our in-depth review and at this point of time we can only say that it manages to capture decent selfies and the blur effect and the cut out (in which you can change the background) are definitely interesting features.
The rear camera too seems quite decent. You can check its camera samples here.
Other features
The Lenovo Vibe S1 seems quite a competent smartphone with a 64 bit octa core processor and 3 GB RAM. It has also the powerful Mali T760 graphics processor. During our short interaction, the phone managed to perform well, opening and closing apps without any hint of lag and it managed to play Beach Buggy Racing smoothly. The power of the graphics processor was also on full display while playing the game.
The speakers of the Vibe S1 are quite loud too. It has a non-removable 2500 Li-Po battery.